350 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



that they skimmed over the surface of the water. It was a 

 most curious, and, I should think, unusual sight. As a rule 

 the birds were too quick for the fishes, and avoided them 

 easily by shooting straight up into the air, but in half an 

 hour's watching I saw two taken like flies within a few 

 yards of me. 



I came across many large breeding-colonies on the Rahad 

 and the Dinder in the last week of March and the first fort- 

 night of April, from which I obtained a good series of eggs. 



145. Merops apiaster Linn. 



a & b. ? ? . Gedaref, April 29, 1901. 



The Common Bee-eater is an abundant cold-weather 

 migrant, arriving in large flights at the end of August or 

 beginning of September. A large proportion go further 

 south, and after its first arrival the species becomes notice- 

 ably less plentiful until the return migration in spring, when 

 very large gatherings are again met with. At Gedaref, in 

 1901, I noticed great numbers passing over on April 29th 

 and the four following days, all travelling due west. 



These Bee-eaters, like several other members of the genus, 

 have a habit, on clear starlight nights, of leaving their roosts 

 and rising high into the air, where they sail about uttering 

 their clear chirruping notes. I have constantly noticed the 

 same habit in Merops sumatranus in the Malay Peninsula. It 

 occurs when the birds are well settled down in their winter- 

 quarters, and has nothing to do with migration. It is well 

 known that in England Swifts may sometimes be seen on a 

 summer evening rising into the air until lost to sight, apparently 

 spending some portion of the night on the wing, and it seems 

 to me that these birds, with powers of wing which must surely 

 make flight a delight to them, have acquired on their migra- 

 tions a love of floating through the still night air over a 

 sleeping world, which is not difficult to understand. I 

 mention this, as the recreation, or: play, of birds and animals 

 (quite a different thing from actions connected with sexual 

 display), which generally takes the form of rapid motion, 

 receives but little attention. 



